Wednesday Hodgepodge

Happy Wednesday!

Today I am joining in Wednesday Hodgepodge with Joyce and the Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop with Pennie.

1. Do you like the beach? I absolutely love the beach!! Any beach!!! anywhere!! When I traveled for work I was lucky to be near beaches and was able to visit a beach at least every night. Now that I am in nursing school I don't see many beaches but I plan to visit some in the future! My favorite will always be Stone Harbor, NJ. We have traveled there almost every year since I was a baby! This picture is from Stone Harbor last year; I went parasailing with my niece Kyleigh.

How far do you have to drive to get to the nearest beach? Stone Harbor is about 8 hours from my home but so very worth the drive!

Your least favorite thing about the beach? The only least favorite thing about the beach is when biting flies are present. They are only there certain times of the year when the trade winds are blowing a certain way but they are awful!! I HATE bug spray at the beach!

Last beach trip you took? I guess my nursing trip to Nicaragua counts for a beach trip. We could not swim in the water but we did take a boat trip around Lake Nicaragua. It was pretty amazing to say the least!

2. Are you known for making waves or are you more of a 'go along to get along' kind of person? Explain. I like to believe I am a "go along with" kind of person every though I have some tendencies toward OCD and controlling behaviors. I am definitely working on these things as I do not want to be THAT person!

3. A favorite song that in some way references the beach? Toes in the water by Zac Brown Band is my very favorite tune for the beach!!



A favorite book and/or movie with a beach-y setting? I think I love any book written by Kristen Hannah. She has written at least 16 books and almost all have a beach theme1 I love her books!

4.Tuesday is National Simplicity Day...what's a simple pleasure you've enjoyed this week? I have enjoyed sitting in my hammock chair on my porch! It is sooo relaxing and I love every second spent swinging! What's something you could eliminate from your life to make things simpler? I honestly think my life at this poit is as simple as it can be. I have made sure of this because school takes up so much time!

5. What's something you love to do? Do you do it often? Why or why not? I love to read for fun and this summer (one school break) has allowed me to do this a lot! I have read so many books already! I am so happy about that!

6. Insert your own random thought here...I will leave you with the picture of my very favorite beach ever! This is Aruba!! Ahhhhh...

Thanks for hosting this Annie and I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

4th of July Part 2

Hey everyone! Welcome to part two of the Fourth of July post!

We decided to do an evening pontoon ride with the whole family out to the middle of the lake to watch the fireworks. We went out early and just anchored in the middle of the lake until it got dark enough for the fireworks to start. Here is the back of the boat… Left to right is my father, my sister‘s husband Steve, my nephew Ryan, my niece Aly, and my niece Kyleigh.

And here is the front of the boat… Left to right my sister Susan, my mom, my niece Jessica, my great niece Leighton, and my sister Kerry.

here are just a couple fireworks…

Ahhhhhh…I love the reflection on the lake!

On the actual holiday we had another visitor join us… my Aunt Marti. She came to spend the day and we all went for a pontoon ride. She was being goofy and posing with her hands on her cheek. Lol!

cute picture of my dad with his dog…

I love this re-creation… My parents dog Gracie is a year old now. We actually re-created the picture almost to the date of when they got her a year ago. Man she grew up quick!! What a sweetie she is though!

Little cutie patootie out on the patio… She loved this little beach chair.

this young man went with my father and played in the closest to the pin on Fourth of July holiday. There’s a small nine hole course at my parents lake and every Fourth of July they have closest to the pin. This young man actually won it this year!!! Sooo awesome!!! He was 5 feet 4 inches! Yay Ryan! He got $117 which was half the donations collected!

Winner winner chicken dinner!!!! Yay

I hope everyone is having a fantastic week!!!

Sending so many hugs!!! Love ya’ll!!

4th of July Part 1

Hi everyone!! I promised myself that I was going to post these earlier. I ended up spending last week trying to get things together to start the fall semester. I can’t even believe it’s almost here… We start in about five weeks. There was just a few things that I had to make sure I got done so I took the time to get those organized. This is it guys… My last semester! At least my last semester fingers crossed… Ha ha!

So wanted to share with you a little bit of my Fourth of July. I hope you all had an amazing holiday… I know I did! I pray that you all spent quality time with family and friends that you love.

We wanted to re-create a picture of these two little crazies. This is what I love about these kids so much… Every year they really embrace the red, white and blue and show so much spirit dressing up! And as you see they’re still wearing the same socks from five years ago! How cute are they??? My older niece, their sister, does not participate to the extent that they do… Lol.

as most of you know if you follow my blog, every year we do a pontoon parade at my parents lake. Everyone decorate their pontoons and different themes. We’ve done some really fun and awesome themes in the past. You can use the search bar on the right of my blog and search for pontoon parade. You’ll see we’ve done this for many years and we’ve come up with some pretty creative decoration ideas for the boat.

This year we decided to just go with good old red white and blue for the Fourth of July.  Here we are all on the boat ready to drive out to the bay where we were meeting until it got dark and we began the parade.

A closer shot of everyone huddled together…

This is my older sister she came for the pontoon fun! She also brought along her daughter my adorable niece Jessica and my very first great-niece Leighton who is 2 years old! They were in bed as this parade was not going to begin until at least 9:30 PM

we purchased this blowup and light up eagle as part of our Decour this year. I got these fantastic Christmas lights that are LED and you use your phone to make them any color you want! They came in super handy for the red white and blue color! I love that I can use my Christmas lights at multiple times of the year.

That’s my Dad driving and my adorable nieces and nephew behind him!

The morning after the pontoon parade there was a pancake breakfast benefit the ski club at the lake. We went down and had delicious pancakes and sausage and we didn’t even have to cook them ourselves.

Here is my sister and the two peeps that missed the boat parade last night. They were definitely game to come down for pancakes with us! What a bunch of cuties they are!

More of the crew after enjoying their pancakes!

As we ate our breakfast we got to watch the ski club practice their moves. They actually practice on land before they try to do it on their skis.

These are my two nieces Aly and Jessica with my great niece Leighton for her very first tube ride. She did not enjoyed in the beginning but once we got the boat moving, she really did have fun.

here is my other niece Kyleigh and my nephew Ryan having a little tubing fun!!!

These two and the dog appeared to be contemplating life…

A little paddleboard ride…

And a little tumbling fun on the mat…

This is everyone loaded on the boat getting ready for a slow pontoon ride. The dog was so excited to snuggle up next to Aly.

dog selfie anyone? You gotta love Gracie!! Such a cutie!!

The pontoon ride put this one to sleep too…

Gracie had so much fun playing on the mat with the kids…

These two took a little JetSki ride together… This is the first year the kids have really been able to drive it alone. They need to have an adult with them but they are allowed to drive it. Maybe next year they can take it alone? That’s all up to Poppy…

I know this was a really heavy photo post and I didn’t wanna forget any of the good pics so I’m gonna make a part one and part two.

I truly hope you all had a fantastic holiday and got to relax and enjoy yourselves as well.

Sending so many hugs to everyone!